2014 Australian five-star guard Dante Exum, who visited Bloomington last weekend on his first official visit, talked to Inside the Hall earlier in the week about his trip.

“The facilities are great and Assembly Hall on Saturday was on another level,” Exum said. “I have never seen anything like it before and enjoyed it very much.”

Exum, who is now drawing interest from Louisville, Kentucky and Ohio State, said he has no timetable for additional visits or for when he might make a decision.

“It will be decided after my U19 World Championship commitments in July [for Australia] when I can take my other visits, because that would be the best time in my schedule to visit,” he said.

Indiana watches Richardson again

Tom Crean and assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Kenny Johnson traveled to Roselle, New Jersey on Thursday night for another look at 2015 wing Malachi Richardson.

The Hoosiers offered the 6-foot-6, 175-pound Richardson in December and last night, he scored eight points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out five assists in Roselle Catholic’s 55-53 win over Linden.

Richardson, who is considered one of the best shooters nationally in the 2015 class, said recently he’s hoping to visit Bloomington soon. The Hoosiers are believed to be one of Richardson’s top schools.

“They were always high on his list when he transferred to my school,” Roselle Catholic coach Dave Boff told Inside the Hall in December. “He’s pretty in touch with what Indiana’s program is all about. I know he spent some time talking to Coach [Crean] over the past few weeks, so I think he has a pretty feel for what Indiana is doing out there and the things that are happening with the program.”

McDonald’s All-American nominees

Four of Indiana’s six 2013 signees were announced as nominees for the 2013 McDonald’s All-American game on Wednesday.

Luke Fischer, Noah Vonleh, Stanford Robinson and Troy Williams were among the list of more than 800 nominated players from around the country.

Collin Hartman and Devin Davis were not nominated as Clay Yeo, Bryson Scott, Demetrius Jackson, V.J. Beachem, Zak Irvin, Torren Jones, and Tony Willis made the cut for the state of Indiana.

The McDonald’s game, the most prestigious high school All-American game, is April 3 at the United Center in Chicago. Rosters will be announced on Feb. 14 at 5 p.m. on an ESPNU special.

2014 St. Frances Academy (Md.) forward Dwayne Morgan will not be making an official visit to Bloomington for IU’s College GameDay appearance against Michigan, according to his AAU coach Dwayne Wise.

Morgan was scheduled to take his first official visit to UNLV on Jan. 12, but St. Frances was invited to play in the Brandon Jennings Invitational in Milwaukee that weekend, forcing Morgan to push his UNLV visit back to Feb. 9.

Wise told Inside the Hall that Indiana will still be Morgan’s second visit, and it will likely take place “in the third week of February or somewhere around there.”

I love the relentless big time recruiting going on in Bloomington nowadays but I have to say I came away from this week really disappointed.

Coming into the season I was sure that IU was the team to beat in the B1G and the most likely team in the conference to win the NCAA Tournament. I knew that Michigan was a close second and would challenge IU the most, but after this week it looks obvious that at this point in the season it’s the other way around at best.

Michigan went into Minnesota and controlled the game from start to finish at the Barn and that’s tough to do. This comes a game after Minnesota almost completed a 23-point comeback at IU! I know Michigan just went down to OSU on the road but I was really hoping they would drop another one and fall behind IU because I still those two teams as the two that will rise to the top by the end of the year. Instead they showed incredible intestinal fortitude coming back after the OSU loss and handling Minnesota so easily while IU showed weakness losing at home to an unranked but good Wisconsin team after almost blowing a huge lead at home the weekend before!

I know teams will continue to beat up on each other and it could shake out any which way, but it sure looks like at this point IU is not the team to beat!

BluegrassHoosier

Hate to say it Aceman but you’re right. Michigan is the team to beat. We’ll only win the B10 if we beat a few quality teams on the road, and we’ll have to beat Michigan at least once. We aren’t going to back into it. Michigan is too good to lose 5+ games in conference.

Kenneth234

I am continuously more and more excited to see how well this Indiana program brings a high level of interest from big time prospects.

However, being not half way through the regular season this season, I am also pleased with the way the season is going despite the poor result in the Wisconsin game. There were valuable lessons learned in that game, and certainly new challenges developed that will likely push this team and coaching staff to make the appropriate adjustments to remedy the problems that have risen recently. Instead being pessimistic about the season moving forward I find plenty of reason to be optimistic.

First, we know that we have to get better in many aspects of the game still. That the majority of the teams are not going to be intimidated by what we have accomplished thus far. Hopefully IU can put the recent second half of the Minnesota game behind them, and the entire Wisconsin game as well, and begin working on learning how to attack more intelligently in the half court game.

The Hoosiers have some holes, not doubt. Jordy, God love him, but if his shot is not falling he’s an absolute 100% liability on the floor in all other facets. Think about the holes that would be filled with a kid like Blackmon out there when he’s a Junior versus Jordy. Would make many parts of the game easier for IU. Watford has not taken the step we hoped he would take. Also our bench has been terrible for a couple weeks now. Will is off with his shot and he seems to work much less on defense when his shot is not falling. Remy has disappeared from the start of the season until now. Parea is a work in progress. Elston has not contributed yet. You get that second team out there and it scares me a little right now. Think Crean may have to scrap this “we are so deep” thought and play the guys that give you the best chance to win if they arent in foul trouble.
I actually watch our games and I think about how nice it would be to have Verdell on this team. For all crap he took from fans at times, he made some huge plays and was strong defensively at the 2 last year.
Still, I think when it’s all said and done IU will be a 1 or 2 seed and have as good a chance at winning any NCAA tournament game they play as the team they are playing will have. That first half against Minny showed what they can be if they play with purpose and strength and pass the ball.

sloan screen #45

Hartman and Davis didnt make the Mcdonalds cut. Im from and Indiana and barely heard of the rest of these guys. Are they that good and where are they going to school?

sloan screen #45

Hartman and Davis didnt make the Mcdonalds cut. Im from and Indiana and barely heard of the rest of these guys. Are they that good and where are they going to school?

SCHoosier

Watching UM last night..Haradway has his total game back and is a handful..nailing several 3 pters form NBA range. Burke has four different weapons on offense..but his killer move is the between the legs step back jumper…can get an open shot anytime he wants with it. UM To’ed the Gophers big time..took Williams out of the offensive flow…and had a comfortable night. The Barn? What Barn.

HoosierTrav

Am I the only one who is completely uninterested in this game due to the tough home loss to Wisky? I’m still trying to build myself up from that one. I’m gonna watch and root us on, no doubt, but I feel like we’re in trouble in the B1G this year. Michigan looked like the team to beat for the National championship last night and I still feel like we’ve digressed as the year has gone on. I don’t think this team has the confidence that it had earlier before the Butler loss. I see it from Victor night in and night out but that’s it. Its gut check time for these boys. Something deep in my own gut tells me that a B1G title is gonna come down to beating Michigan @ Michigan. Those prospects aren’t good at all. Damn Wisconsin, I truly hate you.

Wow, one loss has you that down only 4 games into the B1G season? The UW loss hurt bad, but if they can address the issues in the half court they’ll be fine. No reason we still can’t win the B1G… and there’s still March Madness. Isn’t that what the ultimate goal is anyway? another banner… I’m very interested in the NW game. I want to see how the team responds to that home loss when they go on the road. If we pound NW by 20 on the road it will do a lot to relieve the worries of the UW loss.

Aceman_Mujezinovic_07

That’s definitely a scary thought about Burke when you consider we start Jordy and Yogi together! Who in the world is going to guard Hardaway and Burke? Hulls can’t guard either one of them. They’ll go around him like he’s stuck in cement! You can’t zone them (Minnesota tried twice and UM was 2 for 2) because they stick Hardaway and Stauskas on opposite wings and Burke on the top and shoot the daylights out of the ball, plus they’ve got other shooters as well! I think when IU plays them 2/2 at home it will have to be the game that CTC ditches that starting lineup and goes with Remy or Will instead. How else will IU avoid a horrible start? I actually don’t mind the Hulls/Yogi together a lot of the time, but there’s just NO way they can guard Michigan’s backcourt!

On a side note, after watching that game last night, I really wish CTC had continued to push after McGary! I mean, that kid said nothing would be cooler than being the hometown guy helping lead IU back to glory and we passed on him for what, Jurkin? Right now, if McGary was on our team, I’d feel much more confident that the Hoosiers could cut down the nets in March! Perea is giving us mini-minutes and Jurkin is giving us ZERO minutes. I think both will turn out to be solid players, but I’m not sure either will turn out to be a better college player than Mitch McGary? Just a thought.

twarrior87

Vonleh is a top ten recruit goes to school in NH, Williams top 30 goes to school in VA, and Robinson top 50 goes to school in NV. All of this info is available in the recruiting section on this site. Check it out, alot of good information there.

Aceman_Mujezinovic_07

I’ll admit that not every great team I’ve coached or played on had it all figured out midway through the year and not every average team started average. Every once in a while you have a team start out hot that falls back to the pack and every once in a while you have a team start slow that finishes the whole thing (ala ’81 Hoosiers), but you can’t ignore the here and now and here and now the Hoosiers look to be chasing the lead horse of the league, which appears to be Michigan. I would expect UM to beat OSU by 15+ points or worse when they match up again at Chrysler! That team I watched last night is loaded with talent and plays together better than our team right now!

Aceman_Mujezinovic_07

I think he’s talking about the other Indiana kids listed? I hope so because I’m sure he knows who the rest of our recruits are!

Aceman_Mujezinovic_07

I think he’s talking about the other Indiana kids listed? I hope so because I’m sure he knows who the rest of our recruits are!

sloan screen #45

Thanks twarrior but I am talking about the Indiana kids. Are these kids better than Davis and Hartman? I am well aware of next years class. A great group coming in.

sloan screen #45

You are gonna think I am crazy Aceman but I like our chances against Michigan. Both teams want to push. It will be a shootout. Thats our strength and theirs too but defensive matchups are less important when you shoot every 10 seconds. If we shoot well we have a good chance.

A TRAIN

i luv u guys im so glad to here people say some negative things about iu n not get killed for it…i luv the hoosiers i plan my social life around there games but they got some issues… half court offense is not good our zone defense is terrible and we need to have more of a killer instinct…its hard to complain with the record we have but we could be undefeated..we were beaten by teams that were inferior to us in the talent department but were tougher..i really hope we get it together because the big dogs in the conference are lurking aound the corner…lets go iu get back on track against the wildcats

Kenneth234

Correct me if I am wrong but was the final spread of the game around 8 points?

Kenneth234

Correct me if I am wrong but was the final spread of the game around 8 points?

Kevin Tolliver

Jordan has flaws but don’t we all. He has been proving people wrong his whole career in basketball. We have no shot at anything if he isn’t on the floor… so win or lose we have to stick with him and hope for the best. He is an awesome shooter and floor leader and when he is on, it opens things up for Cody, Vic, Yogi and Wat. He just needs to keep his head up and not get down on himself. THIS is probably his biggest flaw as a bball player. It affects his whole game. So this is to hoping he stays positive and starts ripping the nets like we all know he can do.

Kevin Tolliver

Jordan has flaws but don’t we all. He has been proving people wrong his whole career in basketball. We have no shot at anything if he isn’t on the floor… so win or lose we have to stick with him and hope for the best. He is an awesome shooter and floor leader and when he is on, it opens things up for Cody, Vic, Yogi and Wat. He just needs to keep his head up and not get down on himself. THIS is probably his biggest flaw as a bball player. It affects his whole game. So this is to hoping he stays positive and starts ripping the nets like we all know he can do.

Kevin Tolliver

Anyone else missing Matt Roth? Sure would’ve have been nice to have an extra shooter against Wisconsin to throw in there to spread the court. I thought it was a mistake to let him at the time but really feel that way because the Frosh are needing some time to jell with the rest of the team.

Kevin Tolliver

Mich is more of a half court team than most people think. Minny wanted to run against them and Mich kept slowing it down running their offense. They take their shots when they get em dont’t get me wrong but they can play good half court offense, something we are struggling with right now.